Mlive.com file photoGrand Rapids Griffins goalie Tom McCollum lays out to stop a shot in a game last year.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Grand Rapids Griffins showed first-year head coach Jeff Blashill that they had some fight in them.

But Grand Rapids’ perseverance wasn’t enough to produce the season’s first win.

The Griffins bounced back from an early two-goal deficit to force overtime, but suffered a 4-3 shootout loss against the Hamilton Bulldogs before 3,880 at Van Andel Arena on Saturday night.

Grand Rapids, which fell to Milwaukee 3-2 in its Friday season opener, was outscored 1-0 in the shootout as all five Griffins missed shots against Hamilton goalie Robert Mayer.

“I thought we took a step in a sense that we showed a lot of character,” Blashill said. “We were down 2-0, we had to kill a four-minute penalty, and we did that, and got back in the game.

"We were able to come back and tie it again, and those are moments that you test your team and see what they are made of. Coming off a tough loss last night and coming back tonight, I thought we showed character.”

Griffins goalie Tom McCollum, making his first start of the season, stopped 33 of 36 shots, but allowed the lone goal by Hamilton’s Michael Bournival in the shootout.

“They took advantage of a few turnovers that we made, but the guys in front of me did a fantastic job giving me nice clean lanes to see pucks and make easy saves,” McCollum said. “It was disappointing not to get the win, especially with the way the guys battled back from being down 2-0, and that third goal was completely my fault, and without that bad goal, we really win the game.

"That one is on me.”

Grand Rapids fell behind 2-0 in the opening period as Hamilton scored a pair of goals in the final 3 minutes.

Blake Geoffrion was falling to his knees when he slipped a shot past McCollum for the game’s first goal. Hamilton added another goal with 6.6 seconds left in the first period on a shot tipped in by Bournival.

The Griffins tied the score early in the second period as Trevor Parkes scored his first shorthanded goal as a Griffin just 46 seconds in, and less than 7 minutes later, Francis Pare tipped in a rebound off a shot from teammate Brendan Smith.

Hamilton regained the lead five minutes into the third period, but the Griffins tied it again on a rebound and power play goal by Jeff Hoggan. Hoggan also notched an assist on Pare's second period goal.

Neither team scored in the five-minute overtime, and the Griffins failed to generate any quality shots in the shootout.

“We didn’t have a lot of great looks, and we’re going to have to be better at that,” Blashill said.

Grand Rapids’ penalty killing unit was solid, and prevented the Bulldogs from scoring on six power play chances. The Griffins are 12-of-13 in penalty killing in their first two games.

“I thought we did great job in the penalty kill,” Blashill said. “Our specialty teams were good, and our power play was good overall. We will take those as positives.”

Notes:

Grand Rapids was outshot 37-20 by Hamilton

The Griffins’ next scheduled game is Friday at Rochester

Grand Rapids doesn’t play at home again until Oct. 26 when it hosts Charlotte…